In essence, creating this incredible visualisation was a fairly simple but painstaking process. John Nelson and the team at IDV Solutions compiled data from the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) – a catalogue of millions of recorded earthquakes since 1898 – and sorted them by intensity. Earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 through to 8.0+ were given a green dot and placed according to the epicentre, with brighter dots representing stronger seismic events. The resulting blur of green highlights the volatility of the Pacific Ring of Fire, with the most powerful earthquakes visible as distinct pinpoints of intense green-yellow.